1. Field
Example embodiments relate to a method and system for providing positional information using wireless network information that may include information associated with a facility in which a user is currently located using WI-FI information.
2. Description of the Background
Currently, with the wide spread of mobile terminals, such as smart phones, tablet personal computers (PCs), and the like, users of the mobile terminals may use a variety of information and services without restrictions on a time and/or occasion. Accordingly, location based services and/or applications, for example, a service of notifying a current location of a user, a service of notifying a location that a user desires to search for, and/or a location that the user desires to visit, have been developed into a variety of forms.
Such location based services may be applied to a bus/subway arrival time notification, navigation, and the like, and may provide information suitable for a variety of purposes. However, to provide the location based service to a user, an operation of obtaining positional information associated with a location of the user or a target object is required. The positional information is generally obtained based on a global positioning system (GPS) signal. In the case of obtaining the positional information based on the GPS signal, difficulty is found in measuring an actual location of a user in a shadowing region of a GPS signal, such as a space between buildings, inclement weather, and/or the like, or a region in which the GPS signal may not arrive, such as an inside of a building or subway station.
Accordingly, as disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2011-0135026, published on Dec. 16, 2011, entitled “Subway destination arrival alert system and method, mobile terminal and server thereof”, employed is a location prober to generate a location probing pilot signal capable of individually verifying an accurate location instead of using a GPS signal even though a vehicle in which a user of a mobile communication terminal is riding is driving in a subway. Therefore, since GPS measurement is impossible in a subway, a location of the user of the mobile communication terminal may not be verified. In addition, due to use of a communication repeater incapable of providing accurate location identification information according to an installation location, an accurate location of the user of the mobile communication terminal may not be verified.
In the existing methods, a separate apparatus needs to be associated with each facility such as a subway station and a bus stop so as to provide a location based service. Alternatively, communication with a server needs to be performed periodically over a mobile terminal or a communication network.